Randi-Marie Gonsalves

Librarians have long been known as people who love books and love recommending books. The same is true for me. While in today's day and age we have to be so much more than book experts: teachers, technology specialists, budget creators, advocates, active members of the community, we still must know about the materials housed in our libraries. 

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As a librarian assistant in an elementary school setting, I was often asked the question, "What's a good book to read?" or "Where is such-and-such book?" Whether it was as the students were looking for books during open circulation or trying to find a book at the end of their class period, they knew they could come to me to tell them about the latest and greatest books as well as the oldies but goodies. There were many students who enjoyed reading series and this was often a way that I could get a reluctant reader interested and excited about reading.

 

The first artifact I included above about the digital curation of children's series was a helpful tool and a frequented site for many of the students at the elementary school I worked at. It allowed the student to look up book series that we had in our library. They were given brief synapses about the books and links to author websites or book reviews. It was such a useful tool that I was kicking myself for not creating it sooner. 

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School librarians often collaborate with teachers in order to develop a library that meets the needs of its students. A program that I have seen in use in both schools I have worked at is the Accelerates Reader Program put out by Renaissance. This program measures a student's reading level and then gives them a range of book levels they can check books out under. The students reads the book and tests on it to gain points and a percentage to meet a goal prescribed by the classroom teacher. The librarian needs to be well versed in this program and have it accessible at the library for students. The use of this program is evidence of this SLO by promoting reading for learning and personal growth. 

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The second artifact I included here was the link to the Accelerated Reader Book Finder. This is a part of the Renaissance website where students can look to find out if the book they are reading or want to read is recognized by the Accelerated Reader program. Students can also go to this website to create collections of books they like and are interested in reading. Renaissance's AR program was one that was used in the library that I used to work at and also at the school I work at now. It is a great tool for students, parents, and teachers to find out if books are AR recognized and at the same time find out about specific books through searches by book titles, authors, and subjects. 

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Reading is something that we will use for our entire lives. As librarians, we need to try to foster a love for reading by any means possible. One of the best ways is through communication with the student. We need to speak with them about their interests. We need to listen to them about what they want to read or know about. Often times, a reluctant reader is one who may just not have been introduced to the right kind of book. By talking to our students, we can find out just what type of book would interest them. We can collaborate with teachers and parents to find out their reading abilities and any special needs they may have. We can use this information to point students to books they can read for enjoyment as well as for learning and personal growth. 

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